TO N. P. GORBUNOV

Written:Written on September 3, 1921Published:First published in 1928 inLenin Miscellany VIII.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      pages543-545.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

September 3

ComradeGorbunov,

Ihave just signed credentials for the chairman and
members of the Extraordinary Commission for Exports of the
Council of Labour and
Defence[1](Rykunov, Pyatigorsky,
Valayev and Vladimir Spiridonovich Yermakov). It will
be your task to study the membership of this Commission
and its terms of reference, then systematically to review
its activity and itsreports, and to inform me.

Itake advantage of this opportunity to point out to
you the need for a proper division of labour between you
and Smolyaninov (and Boris Volin, if we succeed in
getting him), and proper organisation of the whole work of
the office of the Council of People’s Commissars and the
Council of Labour and Defence.

Thefunctions should be clearly demarcated between
yourself and Smolyaninov. Each must “carry on supervision”
of specifiedundertakings(electric ploughs; Hydropeat Board;
collective supply; wage rates, etc., etc.).

Foreach subject, both “old” and newly arising, there
must be systematic filing of all papers and reference notes,
so that it should always be easy to find what is required.

Inaddition to the distribution between you of the
business of the “economic front”, the most important front
at the present time, there should also be a division between
you (or you should take them all on yourself) of the
noneconomic People’s Commissariats, “following up” their
work on the basis of the reports of the gubernia and uyezd
economic conferences and otherwise.

Oneach “subject” it is necessary from time to time (once
a week, once a month or every two months, according to
the nature and importance of the business—and then alsosuddenly) to carry out acheck on actualfulfilment. This
is most important and most essential. A record should
be made of the results of each check-up.

Ithink that when there are three of you (you+
Smolyaninov+B. Volin or someone else, if we can’t have Volin)
this will be enough (with a few office assistants) to carry
on the whole work, of course on condition of absolute
efficiency, on the one hand, and of referring everything that
can and should be referred toEkonomicheskaya Zhizn, to theState Planning Commissionand other appropriate
institutions, on the other. To read the uyezd reports it will
be necessary to recruit a number of other people, each being
obliged to sign that he has read it, on a sheet attached to
each report: we shall draw in both writers and some of the
oldest members of the Party, as well as some “experts”.
When the number of reports arriving begins to grow, you
will draw up a list of “helpers in the reading of reports”
and establish astrictprocedure for returning what has been
read.

Takea typed copy of this letter, and send it to me,
together with your reply about a plan for distributing and
carrying on all the work of the Executive Secretary of
the C.P.C. and the Council of Labour and Defence.

Inparticular, it is necessary tofollow upwithspecialattention the work of the Hydropeat Board, both in connection
with the orders for peat pumps already placed abroad for
the 1922 season, and in connection with the recent
communication from R. E. Klasson that he has solved the
problem of
dehydration.[2]

ThenI ask you to investigate the affair of the idleness
of the Swedish works, Nydqvist och Holms (Ekonomicheskaya ZhiznNo. 194,
p. 4).[3]“They were slow in getting
out” the order for water-driven turbines! Of which we have
a terrible lack! This is the height of disgrace and
shamelessness!

||

Make sure tofind outwho is to blame so that we can
send these scoundrels to rot in prison.

||

Findout whopreciselyispersonallyresponsible for the
work of this factory, and for the orders placed with it.

Altogether,the establishment of specified personal
responsibility is the most important job for the Executive
Secretary of the C.P.C. and the Council of Labour and
Defence. I will require this more strictly than anything
else. If it proves necessary, call in immediately for this
purpose the People’s Commissariat for Justice, arid the
Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, or an “expert” from
them.

Onemore thing. It seems to me that the Scientific and
Technical Department of the Supreme Economic Council
has fallen asleep altogether. It is essential either to wake
it up, or really to set going a drive to disperse these
scientific loafers, and establish precisely and without fail who
will be responsible for keeping us abreast of European and
American techniques sensibly, in good time, practically,
not bureaucratically. In particular, Moscow should have
one specimen ofallthe most importantlatest machines:
to learn and to teach. (Two engineers have told me that in
America they make roads with a machine which transforms
a dirt road into a hard road simply by the force of its own
pressure; how important this would be for our roadless
semi-civilised country!)

Wemust see that the Scientific and Technical
Department of the Supreme Economic Council, and its numerous
idlers abroad, should stop idling, or thatwe should replace
them by others.

V.Ulyanov(Lenin)Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

[1]ExtraordinaryCommission for Exportsunder the Council of Labour
and Defence was formed on August 10, 1921, to help the People’s
Commissariat for Foreign Trade in building up an export stock
and concentrating it in its hands. The Commission consisted of
representatives of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Trade,
the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, the All-Russia
Extraordinary Commission, the Supreme Economic Council and the People’s
Commissariat for Food.

[2]R.E.Klasson(1868–1926)—an outstanding electrical engineer,
specialising in hydropeat extraction, who introduced a number
of inventions in the industry.

[3]Areference to the item entitled “Order for Hydroturbines in
Sweden”, carried byEkonomicheskaya ZhiznNo. 194, September 
2, 1921, saying that the power section of the State Planning
Commission was told, during its discussion of conclusions on a project
for turbine installations, worked out for the Volkhov and Svir
construction sites, that the order for hydroturbines could be placed
with the Swedish plant of Nydqvist och Holms, which was at
the complete disposal of the Soviet Government as of July 1, 1921.
At that time, its large turbine department was idle for lack of
orders. Speakers at the sitting noted that because of delay in
placing the order, the turbine department of the plant was being run
at a loss. The power section decided to take steps to place the
order at once and to raise this matter at the next sitting of the
Council of People’s Commissars through the Presidium of the State
Planning Commission. Lenin’s intervention speeded up the
solution of this question.